Pharmacy school opens

Members of first class at new Texas Tech campus sign oaths during ceremony

PHOTOS BY BRIAN SCHMIDT/SPECIAL TO THE REPORTER-NEWS
Larry Moss, a fourth-year Texas Tech School of Pharmacy student speaks with incoming student Christopher Lloyd and his family Jan Lloyd, Michael Lloyd and Sue Lloyd as they tour one of the classrooms at the new Abilene School on Sunday.

Jose Jimenez receives his white coat from the regional dean of the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy during Sunday's ceremony at the Paramount Theatre.

For a pharmacy student, a white coat is more than something to wear.

Some see it as a goal to work toward over the next four years. Some see it as a lifetime of steady paychecks or an opportunity to help their communities.

But when the 40 members of the first class of Abilene's new Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy slipped their arms into their coats at the Paramount Theatre on Sunday, they began training to become trusted medical advisers.

"When a person sees you in a white coat, a person has expectations ... expectations of good faith," Dr. Kevin Jones, a representative of CVS Pharmacies, told the class at their white coat ceremony. "Your duty is to act in the patient's best interest, and that's what this white coat means."

The inaugural class of Abilene's pharmacy school officially began its studies with the ceremony. With relatives and friends in the audience, the students heard messages from successful pharmacists and the school's faculty members. They accepted the white coats from their dean, Kim Powell, and then signed a pharmacist's oath on stage.

"It's really the combination of being able to care for people, having the background that you can answer the questions or you have the resources to answer the questions and being someone they can trust," said Heath Patterson, a pharmacy student from Ballinger.

After earning his bachelor's in biology at Abilene Christian University in 2003, Patterson began a master's program in marine biology in southern Mississippi. After two hurricanes, he said he became homesick and moved back.

"I love the people of West Texas," he said.

He went back to school for more classes and became a pharmacy technician at the now-closed Albertson's on South 14th Street, where he said he enjoyed getting to know customers. He was pleased with the way they responded to his friendly nature.

The United States has faced a shortage of pharmacists for the past few years as the population has aged, according to studies by the Pharmacy Manpower Project -- and the shortage is expected to worsen. There could be more than 150,000 open pharmacist positions in 2020, the project has said.

"The need is so great for pharmacists out in the community, pharmacy schools cannot put out enough pharmacists," said Ann Canales, a professor at Abilene's new pharmacy school.

Dedicated on Sunday afternoon after the white coat ceremony, the new 36,000-square-foot facility at 1718 Pine St. will not only help to churn out new pharmacists, but its students and faculty will contribute to the Abilene economy, said Arthur Nelson, dean of Texas Tech's five pharmacy schools.

To establish the school, Texas Tech raised $15 million in public and private funds, including $1.2 million from the Development Corporation of Abilene.

Over the next four years, the students will learn the science of medicines and work in the community, getting hands-on training, instructor Molly Graham said. The intensive program will test the students, most of whom are high academic achievers, she said.

Though the speakers encouraged the future pharmacists to investigate all possible career paths, Dr. Bernhard Mittemeyer, interim president of the Texas Tech University Health Services Center, encouraged them to work in small communities and become the town's most accessible medical professionals.

"You touch these patients more than you will ever know ... ," Mittemeyer said. "None of them will care where you went to pharmacy school or whether you were first or last. They will judge you by the way you treat them."